“Dr. Iber is a true sleep professional, having devoted his professional career to understanding the complexities of sleep-related breathing disorders such as sleep apnea," said Mary Susan Esther, MD, AASM president. "Dr. Iber is dedicated to helping patients overcome their sleep problems. He has spent a significant amount of time educating the public about the basics of sleep apnea and other sleep-related breathing disorders, as well as evaluating treatment options such as positive airway pressure. Dr. Iber’s commitment to improving the quality of life of sleep-related breathing disorder sufferers makes him a deserving recipient of the Nathaniel Kleitman Distinguished Service Award."

Dr. Iber received the award on June 9 in Baltimore, Md., at SLEEP 2008, the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS).

Dr. Iber is director of pulmonary and critical care at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, Minn., where he has been a senior staff physician since 1980. He is also a professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota at Minnesota. Dr. Iber is a past president of the AASM and also served on the AASM board of directors. He was also president of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS) – a joint venture of the AASM and the Sleep Research Society – and has served on the board of directors of both the American Sleep Medicine Foundation and the American Insomnia Association. He is currently on the editorial board of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine and served as editor of the recent AASM Manual for the Scoring of Sleep and Associated Events: Rules, Terminology and Technical Specifications, which was published in 2007 and is a comprehensive and definitive reference for the evaluation of polysomnograms.

Dr. Iber received a medical degree from the University of Illinois, and completed both a medical residency in internal medicine and a pulmonary fellowship at the University of Wisconsin.

Established in 1981, the Nathaniel Kleitman Distinguished Service Award honors individuals dedicated to the sleep field who have made significant contributions in the areas of administration, public relations and government affairs.

The research of Nathaniel Kleitman, one of the world’s eminent sleep scientists, formed the foundation for many areas of current sleep medicine, including REM sleep, circadian rhythms and the effect of drugs on sleep. Through his inventiveness and achievement, Dr. Kleitman has left a vast impression on the sleep medicine field.

SLEEP 2008 is a four-day scientific meeting featuring an international body of more than 5,000 leading researchers and clinicians in the field of sleep medicine.

AASM is a professional membership organization dedicated to the advancement of sleep medicine and sleep-related research.